MEEKER | Water has always been a priority in the Josephine Basin — the broad valley southwest of Meeker named for the draw where Josephine Meeker and the women of the White River settlement were held captive after the 1879 uprising. The basin depends on rainfall and spring runoff, both of which have been in short supply for decades.
When Kathleen Kelley’s father, Joe Sullivan, started farming the property in the late 1940s, finding ways…